Combining match scores with liveness values in a fingerprint verification system

We discuss the problem of combining biometric match scores with liveness measure values in the context of fingerprint verification. Recent literature has focused on the development of methods to assess if an input fingerprint sample is a “live” entity or a “spoof” artefact. This is commonly done by generating a single-valued numerical entity referred to as the liveness measure value. However, the problem of combining this liveness value with match scores has not been rigorously investigated. The goal of this work is to design a framework in which a liveness detector is incorporated with a fingerprint matcher. We first design and analyze three different methods to combine match scores with liveness values. Next, we introduce a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) scheme that models the relationship between match scores and liveness values. Experiments carried out on a publicly available database of the Fingerprint Liveness Detection Competition 2009 (LivDet09) show the effectiveness of assuming a certain degree of influence of liveness values on match scores.